FC United of Manchester
FC United of Manchester
FC United of Manchester

Ask Me I'll Tell You : Charlie Ennis

He’s the #10 who always finds ’the’ pass and finished the season as the clubs 2nd highest goalscorer, but did you know he’s appeared on stage at the MEN Arena with a boyband, and has thrown the gauntlet down to fans and players alike with the horrific ’Bring Sally Up’ challenge...

Q: how are occupying yourself during the lockdown?
I’ve been working throughout the lockdown and am much busier than normal so it’s kept me in the routine, I can’t say the same for my partner and kids who’ve been off but I’ve been in a good routine so other than no football I’m keeping busy.

Q: Do you watch any programmes at home that your partner watches that you secretly like but wouldn’t admit to her that you do?
There’s a few, I’ve become accustomed to watching a few daytime gameshows like Tipping Point and The Chase and a few others like that, so I’ll always pretend I’m just watching them because she’s put it on but I’ll watch them myself if she’s not around

Q: Favourite all-time television show (apart from the one you secretly love that your missus ’makes’ you watch):
It would probably be ’Line of Duty’ from Netflix, it’s a cop drama and it’s links on across a load of series and as one finishes you immediately want to watch the next one. If I was going to be any of the characters it would be DS Arnott who’s the lead, because his character is involved in everything all the way through.

Q: What’s the worst self inflicted injury you’ve had?
It’s not a self-inflicted injury in the usual sense but I injured my knee playing football but then I tried to come back too early against advice, so I should waited but instead tried to step up my rehab when I shouldn’t have done, this was in my early years when I was a little bit naive and I ended up getting a worse injury than the initial one. You could say it was self inflicted because I went against specialist advice, so I went from a partial anterior cruciate ligament tear and ended up having a full tear through rehab’ing myself too quick. It went from being a four month lay off to missing the full season and a bit so not good.

Q: Best music gig you have ever seen and why?
I’ve not been to many in the last few years but one that sticks in my mind was when I was only 9 years old and I went to watch the band Five at the MEN Arena, I was big fan at the time so I went with my mate and our mums; I ended up getting picked out of the crowd and went on stage as there was a competition where you had to throw a basketball into a hoop, I didn’t get the first four shots but then two of the band members put me on their shoulders and I dunked the fifth, which won me an XBox!

Charlie on stage with Five!

Charlie on stage with Five - zoomed in!

Q:Guilty pleasures time:
Food - I’ve got quite a sweet tooth, so while I’m into health and fitness and eat well 95% of the time but if it’s after a game or having a treat it would be a big bar of Galaxy or Dairy Milk chocolate, you open it and you think you’ll have two or three bits and then you look round and there’s hardly any left so you might as will finish them.
Drink - My go to drink is orange lucozade so after a game I rarely go out so I’ll sit on the sofa with the family and I’ll have one of those on the go, with the big bar of chocolate!

Q: Last film you saw?
We re-watched Snatch, it’s old but gold and I’ve seen it around five times now but you can always go back to it, the story is based on an up and coming bare-knuckle boxer involved with gangsters and their stories are intertwined, it’s really good.

Q: Biggest fashion faux pas?
When I was an apprentice at Stockport County I bought a Dolce and Gabbana t-shirt and it had the biggest ’D&G’ logo on the front you could ever ever imagine, and one of the senior pro’s asked my in the canteen ’ oh er, what make is that shirt?’ - I was 17 and rose to it and said ’It’s Dolce and Gabbana’ and the whole place erupted with laughter, I don’t think I ever wore it again and it had cost me over two weeks wages!

Q: You’re playing for Liverpool against United that you have supported since a boy, you’ve got an open goal in front of you, it’s the last minute of the game and scoring sees Liverpool win the title and relegates United - what would you do?
I’ve got a professional mindset so I’d do the job in hand and not let the emotion get the better of me, deep down it would hurt but I’d do my best for the club I was playing for.

Q: What would happen afterwards, friends/family reaction etc?
They wouldn’t be happy at all, but I’d explain that I had a job to do and maybe we could discuss it over Christmas dinner!

Q: Favourite FC moment so far?
I’ve had quite a few this season but the highlights that stick in mind are coming on against Stalybridge and scoring two and winning the game, I’d been out injured for weeks so it felt great to come on and have such a huge impact on the game and it really made me feel like part of the team after a spell out of the side, it felt really good; but that’s just shaded by the Buxton away game where in the 94th minute where I scored a good goal , not just in the context of the game getting a last minute point but it kept us on that unbeaten run.

Q: Would you ever consider becoming a referee if you had a good chance of making a career out of it?
100% no - I couldn’t see myself doing it, there’s more negatives than positives so no

Q: The first half hasn’t gone well, Reno is raging with the performance, he’s just kicked a football boot into one of the other players face - are you eyeballing him or looking at the floor hoping he doesn’t pick on you?
Probably looking at the ground but I would occasionally look up just to let him know that I’m listening, as a more senior player in the dressing room I’d have to take some responsibility for that performance, but don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be trying to catch his eye, I’d just be showing respect by acknowledging what he’s saying.

Q: Is there any FC player/staff that you wouldn’t want to room with and why?
Any of the younger lads really if it was on a team night out, such as when we went to Brighton or Glasgow, I like my chill-out time and these young lads want to get in at 5am and then get up again at 7am like it’s nothing, I need a good sleep so I’ve be trying to stay away from Curtis or Griff, I’d choose someone more laidback like Doddy or Pottsy

Q: if you could play another position on the team what would you fancy?
It would be the role that Luke played mostly as a deep-lying midfielder just in front of the back four, it can be a nice place to play where you’ve got loads of possession of the ball, pick it up off the back four, have a few touches and dictate play but don’t get me wrong there are some games where you’ve got to screen the back four and you’ve got to be a dogged midfielder hunting down the ball which isn’t me but I’d like to see what that was like.

Q: What’s your favourite part of playing football?
Matchdays, the competitiveness of the game, you can train and run all day but when it comes down to the game I love the fact that it’s a sport where there’s a winner and a loser and as daft as it sounds it’s good to experience losing because it makes winning much sweeter, add into the fans behind you it just motivates you even more, it’s what football is about.

Q: Record for keepy-ups (kick ups etc)?
When I was younger I was always doing them in the garden but recently I’ve seen a challenge on social media where you try to do as many kick-ups in 30 seconds and I managed to do 83! I’ve put it in the first teams Whatsapp group chat and I haven’t had anyone take me up on the challenge, you can see the video below but none of them have attempted it yet, I expected a few challenges from them but it’s gone a bit quiet so they’re either not that impressed or they don’t think they can beat me.

Q: How many press-ups can you do before your arms start trembling like a dog doing its business?
I’d like to say I’m not bad as I look after myself but there’s one challenge that Adam Dodd put in the group chat which is the ’Bring Sally Up’ challenge where you do press-ups to the song, you have to keep going throughout the song which is over three minutes long and I was about 5 seconds short of completing it, it’s really hard I think only Doddy has completed it though we have had a couple of embarrassing efforts too - I won’t mention any names but they know who they are. The Gaffer has said he’s going to add it to pre-season which will be great.

Q: Any one handed ones?
I’ve not tried it and I’d like to see proof of Fin’s and Donners who said they could do 15

Q: Do you have any talents or abilities other than on the pitch?
(Charlie’s partner shouts in the background "Definitely not dancing!") I’d like to say that as part of my job I need to have people skills so I’d like to think that maangement and people skills are something I’m good at.

Q: What’s the worst initiation you’ve ever had to do when joining a new team?
Like a few of the lads when I was a young player, as a first year professional at Stockport, you’re already nervous as a teenager and on a tour of Italy I had to stand on a chair in the restaurant using a salt pot as a microphone, I had to sing something off the top of my head as I’d not been prepared for it and I sang ’I believe I can fly’ and nobody joined in, it was not a pleasant experience. Since then when I’ve joined a team I’ve always been prepared, when I joined FC I did Craig David’s ’Seven days’ which went down really well as everyone joined in after a bit. The key is to get a song that everyone can join in with which makes it a lot easier, I’m not a good singer but there’s quite a few good singers in the team which is surprising but it’s always good fun.

So if you fancy trying the challenges then tweet us your efforts and we’ll RT them - if you complete the "Sally Up" Challenge then Charlie will* come round to your gaff and serenade you at midnight with a rose between his teeth.